Sep 15, 2024; Los Angeles, CA, USA; Allison Janney at the 76th Emmy Awards at the Peacock Theater on Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024 in Los Angeles,. Mandatory Credit: Dan MacMedan-USA TODAY

The journey to Palm Beach’s illustrious (and fictional) “Palm Royale” social club has not been quick for star Allison Janney.

For an interview about Season 2 of Apple TV+’s late 1960s-set comedy premiering Nov. 12, the Oscar winner sits in a mint gown with feather cuffs that shows far less skin than the Christian Siriano blazer-bodysuit dress she donned for this summer’s Las Culturistas Culture Awards.

Janney, who turns 66 this month, says she had to commit to the leggy look, encouraged by her stylist, Tara Swennen. “I can't be a shy wallflower. I have to step onto the red carpet and enjoy every bit of my 6’4 in heels frame and work it.”

Professionally speaking, Janney has been working it for more than four decades. The Boston-born and Dayton, Ohio-bred Janney moved to New York to pursue acting after graduating from Kenyon College in 1982. She took jobs to make ends meet, as she recalled once to her alma mater. “I was scooping ice cream, and I worked as a receptionist in a recording studio, where I was actually an inadvertent drug dealer,” she joked to Kenyon’s alumni magazine. “‘Packages’ were delivered, and I would give them to the nighttime musicians.”

“It was years before my career took off,” Janney tells USA TODAY. “I was, like, 38. So there was a lot of time I was in New York doing off-off-Broadway theater and struggling and auditioning and not getting anything and just having to realize that if there was anything else I could have done, I would have done it. But I realized there really wasn't anything [else] I could do.

“So I just stuck with it,” Janney continues, “thinking, ‘Well, eventually something will hit.’”

Janney made her Broadway debut in 1996 in the comedy “'Present Laughter,'' where she gave ''the most fully accomplished performance,” raved a review in The New York Times.

Next, Janney nabbed the role of press secretary turned Chief of Staff C.J. Cregg on NBC’s beloved White House drama “The West Wing” (1999-2006). Janney’s career momentum hasn't slowed down since. She now has a sizable collection of statuettes, including an Oscar and Golden Globe for "I, Tonya," and 7 Emmys (“The West Wing,” Showtime’s “Masters of Sex,” and CBS’ “Mom.”)

In "Palm Royale," Evelyn was introduced as the self-appointed queen bee of Palm Beach society and celebrated for her philanthropy. But her throne was practically washed away when her late husband Skeet (Bruce Dern) bequeathed his estate to his daughter, Linda (Laura Dern). Now Evelyn is on a mission to recoup her place atop the throne, after cohosting the Beach Ball with Maxine (show protagonist Kristen Wiig).

“Now she's in this place where she thought everything that matters was her status and her money and her things, and now all those are ripped away from her,” Janney says. “She's got to reinvent herself. She doesn't retreat. She adapts and moves forward like a shark. She's moving forward and she's going to find the way to regain her power.”

Janney says her female costars – which include show lead Kristen Wiig plus Carol Burnett, Leslie Bibb and Kaia Gerber – are nothing like the socialites of the “Palm Royale.”

“Nobody's a diva on the set,” says Janney. “Everyone is really fun. We sit backstage and shop together on our phones and we talk about silly things that have happened. It's a lovely camaraderie with everyone and that just feeds your soul.”

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Allison Janney didn't find success until age 38. 'It was years before my career took off'

Reporting by Erin Jensen, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

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